Newspapers around the world have published editorials this morning addressing the row over the Danish Muhammad cartoons. Here is a selection:

Al-Akhbar, Egypt (translated by The Egyptian Gazette)

"How can more than 1 billion Muslims worldwide be so weak compared to the 10-million strong Jewish community in standing up for their beliefs? That the Danish government refuses to make an apology is tantamount to condoning the newspaper's behaviour, so no one can blame Muslims for their boycott of Denmark."

Al-Gomhurriya, Egypt

"It is not a question of freedom of opinion or belief, it is a conspiracy against Islam and Muslims which has been in the works for years. The international community should understand that any attack against our prophet will not go unpunished."

Al-Shihan, Jordan

(The newspaper published three of the cartoons before the editor was fired and copies were pulled from shops)

"Muslims of the world, be reasonable... What brings more prejudice against Islam, these caricatures or pictures of a hostage-taker slashing the throat of his victim in front of the cameras or a suicide bomber who blows himself up during a wedding ceremony in Amman?"

"Oh I ask God to forgive me," editor's apology.

Le Monde, France

"Religions are systems of thought, spiritual constructions, beliefs that are respected but which can, by turn, be freely analysed, criticised and ridiculed... Secular, republican society is built on religious neutrality and tolerance. It is, therefore, necessary to distinguish between religions and those who practise them: devotees must be protected against all discrimination and against all attacks motivated by their religious beliefs."

The Sun

"The Sun believes passionately in free speech, but that does not mean we need to jump on someone else’s bandwagon to prove we will not be intimidated. It does seem ridiculous, though, that mayhem is breaking out over a handful of cartoons. Can we all get real."

The Daily Mail

"While the Mail would fight to the death to defend those papers that printed the offending cartoons, it disagrees with the fact that they have done so. Rights are one thing. Responsibilities are another. And the newspapers that so piously proclaimed their right to freedom of speech were being - to put it mildly - deeply discourteous to the Islamic view."

The Daily Telegraph

"Our restraint is in keeping with British values of tolerance and respect for the feelings of others. However, we are equally in no doubt that a small minority of Muslims would be offended by such a publication to an extent where they would threaten, and perhaps even use, violence. This is a problem that the whole of the Western world needs to confront frankly, and not sidestep."

The Financial Times

"There is something dishonest, too, about the way Arab leaders defer in these matters to reactionary clerical establishments they rely on to legitimise their autocratic rule. That was for many, many centuries the way it used to be in Europe. The "Christian" west won through to modernity in the teeth of clerical reaction. As Arab and Muslim societies return to that road they will collide with their religious establishments on the way to repossessing their religion. Even Islamist reformers tend to believe this."

The Guardian

"It is one thing to assert the right to publish an image of the prophet. As long as that is not illegal - and not even the government's amended religious hatred bill makes it so - then that right undoubtedly exists. But it is another thing to put that right to the test, especially when to do so inevitably causes offence to many Muslims and, even more so, when there is currently such a powerful need to craft a more inclusive public culture which can embrace them and their faith."

The Independent

"There is... no doubt that newspapers should have the right to print cartoons that some people find offensive. Indeed it goes to the very nature of the political cartoon that it seeks to make a point through exaggeration, distortion and caricature - a process which is, by definition, intended to needle those being criticised, or their supporters. In a free society it is proper that speech, and other forms of expression, should be free."

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